One of Britain's richest business men is moving to Switzerland and taking his business with him in order to escape the government's new tax regime. Jim Ratcliffe, chairman of the troubled chemicals group Ineos, is relocating the business to Europe in the hope of saving as much as £100m a year in tax. Ineos, which is Britain's biggest private company, is £6bn in debt thanks to an aggressive acquisitions policy that has seen it buy up chemicals businesses cast off by other players in the market - including ICI and BP - and has been badly affected by the recession. Now Ratcliffe and other senior executives have decided to leave Britain, and believe by relocating to Switzerland they will save almost £400m in tax by 2014. Ironically, the move has the support of two of Ineos's biggest creditors, the banks RBS and Lloyds, both of which were bailed out by the government and are therefore partly responsible for Labour's decision to increase taxes in the first place. The news comes as a blow to Gordon Brown, who has been criticised by the private sector for increasing National Insurance contributions and has been accused of making Britain a less than attractive location to do business. According to Ineos, the new tax legislation will result in "significant levels of additional tax". In 2007 Ratcliffe was 10th on the Sunday Times Rich List, with a fortune of £3.3bn. The following year his wealth had fallen to £2.3bn and he is now said to be worth a meagre £150m.
He will not be the first businessman to quit the country over tax. Financier Guy Hands, whose Terra Firma group owns EMI, has moved to Guernsey and in recent weeks other businesses have said they are considering quitting Britain. They include drinks giant Diageo and multinational Unilever. Advertising group WPP and drugmaker Shire have both relocated to Ireland and publisher Informa last year restructured so that it now pays it tax in Switzerland. Ends..
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